The WBO world heavyweight champion, Joseph Parker’s trainer, Kevin Barry spoke exclusively with boxingscene.com for an update on the ongoing negotiations for a unification showdown with Anthony Joshua.
“We were in the process of signing Browne for a fight at the end of March or beginning of April and Eddie came out after the Carlos Takam fight and said we want Parker first up next year.”
“When he did that Joe said that the Takam fight put everything in perspective. We know Takam took that fight on only 12 days notice. We know he didn’t have any sparring. The story about him being on hold was bull***t.” Barry added.
“The promoter friendly stoppage at the end – there were a lot of holes in that fight and Joe said, ‘oh my God let me have this guy. Let me have him now before someone else beats him.”
“So then we started the negotiations and as I mentioned to you we made a lot of concessions and a lot of compromises,” Barry told BoxingScene.com.
.@anthonyfjoshua 65% & rematch not enough to unify? Believe your own hype? Bubble's gonna burst bro #BigGlassRobot@eddiehearn @d_higgins_duco #NeverBeenDroppedpic.twitter.com/HYVAVAtFj8
— Joseph Parker (@joeboxerparker) December 7, 2017
“We know that Joshua is a big star in the UK but there hasn’t been a unification championship fight in the heavyweight boxing in over six years since (Wladimir) Klitschko and David Haye.
“This fight is a big deal.”
“We knew we weren’t going to get parity on the business side, Joshua has two belts and we’ve got one. The 65-35 (split) was a pretty good number for our team.”
“That is what we are heading towards. Eddie Hearn has made several statements that we are close. We know that we are close but Joshua is the one now who has to make a small concession.”
If Anthony Joshua fights Joseph Parker I will bet anybody in the world £5000 cash the parker will ko him?
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) November 15, 2017
“We have made a lot of concessions and compromises. We really have done I believe everything in our power to make the fight a reality. I think Eddie Hearn has been really good.
I think the negotiations between him and (Duco Events Director) David Higgins have gone reasonably professionally. We have moments where we vent on social media but that was all designed to raise Joe’s profile.
He was a little bit invisible in the UK and now I think a lot more people are aware of who Joseph Parker is and what he looks like. They see the belt around his arm and the statements from him,” Barry concluded.
"Let's fight and prove who is the best in the world!"@joeboxerparker tells us he is ready to show just how good he is by taking on @anthonyfjoshua… 🥊🥊🥊 pic.twitter.com/sCKnWHbnhV
— talkSPORT Breakfast (@TSBreakfast) November 8, 2017
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